Living Your Joy Out Loud: Claiming and Exclaiming Who You Are in Christcomment (0)

July 17, 2014

By Martine Bates Sharp

Joy Bazemore. Nashville: Crossbooks, 2014. 208 pp. (Paperback).

Are you ready for another women’s Bible study? Tired of those bothersome questions at the end of each chapter? Well, take heart, this one has no questions to ponder — but it does have songs to sing.

Alabamian Joy Bazemore has written this book primarily for women who are already Christians, but she does note, “I hope it contains the gospel message so those who are not saved may come to believe.” Each of the 18 chapters is based on one word from the Book of Philippians Paul used to describe the early believers. Chapter headings such as “Saint,” “Peacemaker,” “Servant” and “Wrestler” — wait a minute. Wrestler? OK Paul didn’t actually use that word in Philippians, but he did describe his struggling, or wrestling, with several issues.

Each segment of the book is short and easy to engage with; the joy the writer feels in her Christian walk bounces exuberantly on each page, yet there is meat to fuel the growth of the reader in each chapter. Each chapter ends with the words to a hymn chosen to summarize the teachings of that portion. “Living Your Joy Out Loud” is a good book for personal devotion or study. To use as a group study, the book would require some work on the part of the facilitator.